Injury gives Entsminger perspective

STEPHENS CITY — After missing the last five games of the season with a broken collarbone, Reid Entsminger couldn’t be more excited to be back playing football this season.

Entsminger said it’s definitely given him a new perspective.

“It definitely makes me appreciate it more since it’s my senior year as well,” Entsminger said. “I’m not guaranteed a full season this year, I found that out last year. I’m not Superman or anything, so anything can happen.”

When Entsminger was on the field, he made a lot happen for the Warriors. The senior went 40 for 78 for 672 yards passing with nine touchdowns. He also had two interceptions on defense.

Entsminger is in his third year at quarterback, but he hasn’t had a lot of game experience. He missed part of his sophomore season with a dislocated thumb, and then last year he missed the final five games.

Sherando coach Bill Hall said one thing he can always count on with Entsminger is his competitiveness.

“Reid is always consistent in that he’s always a competitor,” Hall said. “He brings that mentality to the games, to practice. He’s a very coachable kid. He’s fun to be around. The guys like to be around him.”

Entsminger said he worked hard in the offseason at getting better reading the defense and getting his throws off a little quicker. He said that one thing his injury taught him was how important it is to avoid as many hits as possible.

“I probably took too many hits that I shouldn’t have, but I’m going to learn from that this year,” Entsminger said.

HEALTHY COMPETITION: Hall said one thing that’s important for any team is to have lots of depth, and one way to get that is through healthy competition.

Even though they have a lot back this year, they still have plenty of competition going on within the team.

One of the big positions where there is competition is at offensive tackle. Hall said Christian Farris, Seth Wagner and Kyle Warren are battling for the two starting spots.

“It gives us flexibility to give people more playing time,” Hall said. “At the offensive tackle position there will be two that start, but that doesn’t mean the other won’t be playing. It’s healthy competition.”

Hall said having competition allows the players to push each other and makes everybody better.

“If someone is not producing the way they need to, the next one is pushing them or they are taking up their slack,” Hall said.

LOOKING TO IMPROVE: The Warriors scrimmaged Eastern View last week, and will host Loudoun Valley on Thursday. Hall said he was happy with his team’s performance last week, and he wants to see improvement this week in their last scrimmage.

“We’re just looking for progression from last scrimmage to this one,” Hall said. “They’ll be playing a different front, so our offensive line will be focused on something different this week. Defensively, just progression, technique stuff. Building off getting after the ball, ball disruption, creating turnovers, building off of that. Fundamentals of tackles is always something we’re looking for and building on to improve on.”

Hall said he also wants his offense to keep improving in its efficiency and to keep the turnovers to a minimum.

He said another big thing the coaching staff will be looking at is the decision-making of the players.

“You see a lot of things that are variables, and how do we go through our progressions and how did those things play out?” Hall said. “Did we do a good job with the process we go through to get to where we want to be?”